The UK needs to cut food waste, plant more trees and promote healthy diets to help cut greenhouse gas emissions, it has been urged in the wake of a new UN climate report.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned global warming will hit food supplies and that the way land is used is causing greenhouse gas emissions.

It sets out out how measures such as sustainable farming, changes to diet and protecting and replanting forests can tackle the problem.

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Corinne Le Quere, a member of the UK Government's advisory Committee on Climate Change, said the IPCC had issued a "stark warning" that the world must change how it uses land to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

"That includes rethinking how food is produced globally, our food choices, and how land is managed," she said.

"Rapid action is needed - delay risks serious impacts including desertification, further degradation of land, and potential disruption to the global food supply.

"The IPCC's findings chime with our advice to Government: the UK needs to reduce food waste, promote healthy diets, and use land sustainably, including planting more trees and restoring degraded soils.

"All of these steps will help to improve people's lives whilst reducing the harmful emissions which cause climate change."

Vicki Hird, from Sustain - the alliance for better food and farming, said the report "makes clear that unless we rapidly change course on land use and farming, alongside reducing fossil fuel use, we won't be able to prevent the climate crisis".

She said: "Climate change is already affecting food production and we face increasing food instability and insecurity, poverty and ill health as climate change affects land and food production globally."

She said "rapid and multiple" measures were needed as there was no silver bullet to halt damage to the land.

She called for support for nature-friendly farming, and strong measures to eliminate food waste and support a move to a balanced diet with more plants, and less and better livestock.

Experts behind the UN report said red meat had a high greenhouse gas emissions impact, because of the emissions livestock give out and the impact of land being cleared to grow crops for animal feed.

The report says balanced diets with plant-based foods such as grains, veg and pulses, and animal-based food produced in sustainable systems with low greenhouse gas emissions can help curb climate change and benefit health.

Pasture-Fed Livestock Association general manager Russ Carrington said cattle and sheep which are fed wholly on grass and pasture can be "part of the solution" to global warming rather than the problem.

He said: "Products coming from animals that are only ever fed grass and pasture and never any grains help build soil fertility and capture carbon, encourage wildlife, create high animal welfare and produce healthier meat and dairy products."

He said it made sense to graze cattle and sheep, rather than feeding them grain such as soy.

"There is also growing evidence that well-managed soils using grazing animals can help mitigate global warming by capturing carbon in soils," he added.